May 9th and 10th

We spent Saturday in the yard planting and then out to Outback for dinner for Mother's Day. I am realizing a pattern here for the weekend. I don't have many photos because I am working so hard! I need to take more of what we are doing as I go along. This is the tomato and bean garden, we have the beds all separate this year. Our goal is to just get them in and over time we will make them look pretty and more functional.

Can you believe this is the only picture I have from Mother's Day? Fiona wore a pair of my clip on earrings. She was so excited to try them. We had a nice relaxing Sunday and rested.

May 8th

Home school convention! I love going to the convention, once a year its a very visual reminder that I am not alone in this endeavor. There are thousands of other people who home school, they just happen to live far away from me. Don't get me wrong, I have friends who home school but it is a small group compared to other regions of the country.

I love going and looking through all the possibilities, even if I pretty much know what I want to use and what will work for my children. It's always nice to browse. I especially loved the Lamplighter book table, all those leather bound volumes, they smell so good and the stories are just as sweet. I can't wait to place my order. I picked up an art program that will work perfect with our history program, some writing tablets and journal books, math charts, and world geography books.

I will order the rest of the curriculum over the next month or so. I was able to go with a new friend and had a great time wandering around, it gets me excited about teaching just when I think I have had enough for the year, I can't wait for the new books to come in.

May 6th

It's still raining here so we are stuck inside for another day. I do have my van back from the shop though. It needed new brakes and other work I know nothing about. 800.00 later it's running well again just in time for the trip I am taking on Friday to the home school convention.

Today I dusted the living room, including the ceiling fan and wall of photos. Something I love to put off doing and I remembered why after I started sneezing. I had to take some allergy medicine it was so bad. That of course made me sleepy for the rest of the day. So instead of hemming my window treatments I folded that pile of laundry I had been avoiding.

Being inside for the day I mentioned playing Lego's as a fun activity and something we had not done in a while. They seem to go though phases with them. The boys decided to build the police station, which is very time consuming and very detailed. It took them forever but Owen finally finished it this afternoon. Now they can play with it for a while.

Don't you just love the detail? The jail cells have toilets!

I just love Lego's, they keep my boys entertained for hours, whether they are building from the instructions, building creatively, or just playing and making up stories. Its so much fun to listen to them!

Redecorating-May 4th & 5th

Instead of cleaning my house and doing laundry on these dreary days this week. I have been redecorating! The floors need to be mopped, the bathrooms cleaned, and the laundry folded but all of that is not nearly as enjoyable as making curtains, rearranging furniture, potting plants and hanging new window treatments. Some people get the spring clean bug and actually clean their homes. I just end up rearranging and reorganizing, its so much fun, and I guess I do get the cleaning done in the process, it just takes me twice as long. I am so easily distracted by the decor.

I made use of my good will find and planted some succulents in the tool box. I think it looks nice now but when it fills in it will look great and adds a nice look to the hallway.

I redid this corner in the kitchen with some old wood crates that were in the garage. It's so much nicer than before and quite functional. The curtain I made for it today hides the i-pod base and the remote even works through the fabric. No more little fingers playing with the buttons. The fabric was leftover from the kitchen window treatments I had in Illinois, I love having a bit of it out where I can see it here, brings back memories.

I then hung the window treatments in the front room. I was only able to get the big window done before I ran out of money, but its a start and all ready looks so much better! I am not finished with this project yet but couldn't wait to share it with you. I found the idea on The Lettered Cottage blog. She used painter's drop cloths and I thought it looked great and was exactly the color I was looking for. My drop cloths are from Lowe's and as you can see I still need to hem them as they are 96 inches long. This is such a cheap treatment. Each cloth is only 10.00. Now I can't wait to paint these walls and finish the other two windows. Finally this room is coming together, its such a mish mash of all things leftover.

I'll have to take more pictures when they are completely finished and washed and hung to the right length. Hopefully I will get to that tomorrow, but first that laundry....

May 3rd

Today it rained ALL day and I'm pretty sure it's never gonna stop. At least it makes everything looks so bright and green! I just love spring. Today after we came home from church. I decided to put together a few freezer meals since I had chicken in the fridge still. Now I have been cooking once a month or once every 3 months for years! You would think that after going to 3 grocery stores I would have all the ingredients because I made my shopping list correctly. Not this time! So while the girls were napping the boys and I ran to the 4th grocery store of the week. On the way the car started doing funny things. So we got the 2 things we needed and had David come pick us up in the truck and we left the van at the shop that just happens to be next to the store. While waiting for David to talk to the mechanic, I dug out my camera and took pictures of the children, to keep them distraced about how long it was taking. I love digital for this reason they always want to see the photo! Here's a really weird one of Owen. When we got home we celebrated May Day and the children got their spring baskets. They had a blast playing with all of their new things and it kept them busy all evening.

I did manage to get my meals finished and make something for dinner. Just a lot later than planned. At least the freezer is full. We have been needing meals for these weekends where we work hard and don't want to stop to cook. Despite the detours it turned out to be a wonderful Sunday.

May 2nd

Today we spent outside working on the yard. There is just so much to do! We have officially lived in our house for 3 years today. When we moved in I was nine months pregnant with Gwen we had a mountain of dirt in our front yard, boxes everywhere and white walls. We've come a long way in that time, here's my trip down memory lane.

Our front yard when we moved in. No grass, no trees, piles of dirt and rock, and 1 very large lawn ornament, I mean bulldozer.

Piles of boxes everywhere.

No window treatments anywhere. We used cardboard for a while.


Fiona's room. I did paint the children's rooms before we moved in. Yes I was 9 months pregnant but I knew if I didn't do it it would never happen. Gotta love those nesting instincts.

This is the girls room now.

Master bedroom, I don't have any before pictures.

Dining room as it looks now, you can't see the buffet in this angle.

Hallway as it looks now.

Front of the house as it looks today. I put the store garden in on the right. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have it done on the left side also. Right now its a vegetable garden.

Still working on the new flower bed. It's like picking fleas off a cat, there is so much gravel in the yard!
I still have thousands of projects I want to do, and looking back at what we have accomplished helps to know that getting them done is actually possible.

Happy Birthday House.

May 1st

Today was one of those days. Trying to pack to much in and forgetting that my children were tired from a long week of late nights. I needed to go shopping, bad. I had been putting it off for so long and there was so much we needed. So I made my lists, rushed through school with the boys and off we went for the first round; at this point is 11:00.

We get to Wal-Mart 11:30 and everyone declares they are hungry. Well at least they are not all asking to go to the bathroom, patting myself on the back for actually reminding them all to go before we left. I tell them we will get a pizza at Sam's and won't be in here long, I know where everything is, it's Wal-Mart we've been here hundreds of times. Silly me in the month since we were here last they remodeled the store.

I have NO CLUE where anything is! This means we must walk the entire store, bickering over who is going to push the cart and who is going to stand on the back and who is going to ride in the cart and make sure Gwen doesn't fall out. Then there are the requests for things, movies playing in the TV section, (who knew they were showing Bolt?!), garden statues to climb on, and water dripping off the eaves to play in. Needless to say it was not a quick trip in and out, we were there for over an hour and everyone was hungry!

Back in the car for the short drove across the parking lot I was going to give a long lecture about not dilly dallying and keeping up with Mommy when my Miles pipes up from the back "Mommy that was so much fun! I am liking shopping today". Gulp, this from the one who complains every time we leave the house! Thank goodness for that God moment, I listened and kept my mouth shut, resolving to have an enjoyable shopping experience together instead of us all grumbling and complaining by the time we got home.
We only made it through two stores, but we had a great time and this was on my porch when we got home! New scrapbook goodies to play with, after I finish the rest of my errands and kiss my sweet babies good night, of course!